• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Adding voltage to a PT

jcalvarez,

You are fortunate to have built your first vacuum tube amplifier over 40 years ago.

In my example in Post # 17, when connecting tap 4 of the bias transformer to ground . . .
The B+ is +300V, and the bias is -50V (both referenced to ground, pin 4).

But since the ground (both power supply returns) are on tap 4, you do not get 350V B+ to ground.

Have it one way or the other, but not both.
I just wanted newbies to know that.
 

PRR

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Just put the auxiliary supply in series with the positive side, not the ground/center tap. Then the bias tap works as expected.

Gee, you think?
 

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I think is time to plug the soldering iron and put together a proof of concept.

It works. Here are the results.

I understand that putting the additional supply on top would also works. However I think this arrangement has the following advantages:

1) No requirements for high voltage insulation of the booster transformer.
2) The B- can be used not only for bias, but for CCD B- too. You can take much more current than from the usual PT bias tap.
 

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Last edited:
But since the ground (both power supply returns) are on tap 4, you do not get 350V B+ to ground.

But they are not both on tap 4, and that is exactly why it does work ...

It becomes clearer when we put a cap to each of the rectifiers.
Now it is obvious that the positive outputs of each of the PSs add together.
And maybe that is the way I would have probably done it.

Anyway, it also works w/o the additional caps.

At first glance I thought the output would see some 50 Hz ripple from the booster rectifier, but that isn't the case, confirmed by sim as well as the boost.
 

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